'Weather closed in' at Kokoda airstrip

A pilot who works in Papua New Guinea says one of his colleagues was in contact with the plane carrying nine Australians shortly before weather closed in and it crashed yesterday.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has confirmed there are no survivors from the flight which was transporting passengers from Port Moresby to the Kokoda Track.

Peter McGrew is the chief pilot of another commercial operation that flies in PNG regularly and he has flown the Port Moresby Kokoda Track route for almost 25 years.

Mr McGrew says one of his colleagues was flying ahead of the plane that went missing over the Owen Stanley Range yesterday.

"I can't really say anything until the proper investigation is carried out, but from what I got from our pilot was that on their first trip to Kokoda that morning the weather was clear all the way until they got to the Kokoda airstrip itself and then it was particularly poor," he said.

"They held for about half an hour, unable to land and returned to Port Moresby to get some more fuel.

"They then set out again and encountered poor weather in the immediate Kokoda area, but were able to land on this occasion with a window of opportunity that presented itself which quite often happens in PNG."

Mr McGrew says the plane made contact with the doomed flight and told them of the weather conditions.

"On departure they were actually speaking to the other aircraft and reported the weather to be up and down at Kokoda, came back to Port Moresby, they then set off on a second trip and we're unable to land the second time due to weather and abolished the rest of the day's flying trying to get there," he said.

"It was while he was departing Kokoda that he was talking to the other flight."

'Window of opportunity'

Mr McGrew says severe changes in the weather around the Kokoda area are common. He says these changes often force pilots to abandon landings at the airstrip.

"The climate conditions in PNG, at a place without an incident approach procedure, quite often the weather clears temporarily and then closes in again, clears temporarily and then closes in again," he said.

"It was just a window of opportunity that presented itself for our aircraft to be able to land that obviously wasn't there when the other aircraft arrived over Kokoda airstrip."

Mr McGrew says Airlines PNG, which owned the plane, has a good flying record.

"Look it's very, very good. All the operators that exist in PNG at the moment have multi-national mining and oil company contracts and are a highly regulated environment, audited several times a year by international companies. Airlines PNG is a safe operator," he said.

Authorities are still trying to reach the wreckage but Mr McGrew believes local villagers have probably already made it to the site.

"If it's on the south side of Mount Bellamy - which by all news reports it is - I would [not] be surprised if a couple of the local villages on that side of the Kokoda gap haven't already got to the crash site," he said.

"I would think some of the local people who know that area like the back of their hand would already be there," he said.